Package-freight carrier



June 24, 1930. w. P. KELL ETT 1, 65, 91

PACKAGE FREIGHT CARRIER Filed Feb. 4, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor William P/aZfs Ae/lefl'. M HSM Z WUP. KELLETT PACKAGE FREIGHT CARRIER June 24,1930.

Filed Feb. 4, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 iV/llgllllllllll Im/an for William Plafls Kel/e/I.

. Patented June 24, 1930 UNITED STATES wrnrmnr rLAr'rs KELLETT, or NEwYoRm'N. Y.

' PACKAGE-FREIGHT CARRIER Application filedlhbruary 4, 1929. Serial No. 337,416.

The principal objects of this invention are to providea carr1er or container for transporting package freight, which maybe carried by rail and truck in such a manner that the individual packages will not berequired to be so strong as to support other lading,

the container being so constructed that indi-' vidual packages may be removed .fWlthOllt disturbing others, thereby facilitating through delivery from consignor to consignee without breaking bulk utilizing rail and motor truck transportation and reducingthe handling of the goods to the minimum.

A further and very important ob'ect is to provide a carrierwhich is adapted or the carrying of package freight or refrigerated products as may be desired.

The principal feature of the invention consists in the novel construction of a container capable of'being carried on a railway car and being transferred for truck haulage from rail head, the body of which is formed of a plurality of individual compartments extending transversely thereof andopening at the ends to permit the insertion and removal of packaged goods, such compartments being spaced apart to permit circulation of refrigerated air therearound.

In the drawings accompanying this application, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a container constructed in accordance with this invention.

Figure '2 is a vertical cross sectional view through the container taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1. i Figure 3 is a side elevational view showing aplurality of these containers arranged upon a railway car. 7

' Figure 4is an enlarged sectional perspective detail of the compartmentsat one end of the container and showing the arrangement for carrying out the refrigeration of the compartments.

In the transportation of L. C. L.'and package freight, considerable loss has been entailed in the-handling and re-handling of the goods and though numerous forms of containers have been tried for segregating sections of a car load, their use has not been satisfactory for the'transportingmf small consignments of freight.

The container herein shown is constructed of a skeleton frame-work which providesa series of rectangular openings along both {5 sides and in these rectangular openings are arranged rectangular casings 1. which. are preferably made of corrugated sheet metal arranged with the corrugations running lengthwise,that is, fromend to end and the ends of the casings are open.

These casings are supported at the corners 1 in transversely arranged anglebars 2 whichare here shown riveted or otherwise rigidly secured to the transverse fiat bars 3.

- At the ends of the casings l the composite transverse bars formed by the angle bars 2 and flat bars 3 may be supported by vertical metal stanchions or posts but intermediate j of the width of the container the horizontal bars are preferably supported by wood struts/1.

It will be seen that the thickness of the flanges of the angle bars 2 and the intervening flat bars 3 will provide horizontal spaces 7 between the respective top and bottom sides of the tiers of rectangular casings 1 and the lower casing compartment will be spaced by suitable spacing bars 5 from the bottom Wall 6 of the container. Similar spacing will be arranged between the top compartments and the top 7 of the container.

l The. vertical supports arranged between the vertical rows of corrugated casings provide vertical spaces and the flat bars 3 areprovided with perforations 8to allow a vertical circulation of air from the top to the bottom tier. of casings and slots 9 arecut in the flat bars 3 to allow air to circulate in the horizontal spaces 10 between the tiers of casings 1. v

- he casings 11 and 12 arranged respectively at the ends of the top tier are open at the top and are provided with hatches 13 similar to the hatches arranged on ordinary refrigerator cars to enable these casings to be filled with ice.

Ice pans 14 will preferablybe placed in these upper compartments to prevent the leakage of water'into the other parts of the Container and a suitable drain pipe is connected to the bottom of the pan to carry off the water from the melting ice.

Suitable insulated doors 16 are secured to the frame structure of the container to close the ends of each of the rectangular casings; The two bottom tiers of doors are hinged at the bottom and when open are supported in a horizontal position by suitable chains or rods 17 so that each of these doors ma be used as steps to enable ready access to t e top compartments.

The container is referably provided with rollers 19 arrange in suita le supports on the bottom to allow the container to be readily moved about in a warehouse and these A upon a fiat car and when a car arrives at its destination, thecontainer may be removed and placed upon a truck for delivery.

The provision of separate compartments in the container, each containing consignments of goods properl addressed, enables the routing of a truck eliveryfor distribution to. various consignees direct from the container and no handling of the packages is necessary until they are delivered at the door.

The packages are supported in their individual compartments without pressure of other lading and are relieved from contact with other lading in road shocks:i consequent-.

Iy breakage losses will be reduce to the minimum and the compartments being open at the ends will enable access to their contents for routing and delivery without their being disturbed.

The provision of means for cooling the compartments of a container such as described will enable it to be used for the transportation of perishable freight requiring the maintenance of low tem rature durin transit as well as ordinary reight thus re ucing em ty car mile t will be readlly understood from this de- S ription that containers such as described will efl'ect a very great saving in freight transportation by eliminating many different forms of losses and the actual cost of rail haulage will be reduced to the minimum.

What I claim as my invention is 1- A package freight carrier,comprising a container having its interior subdivided into a plurality of individual compartments each of said compartments being open at each end and adapted to hold individual packages of ings.

2. A package freight carrier, comprising a rigid frame structure, a pluralit of casings parallelly arranged and exten ing transversely of said frame and having 0 en ends,

said casings bein rigidly secure in said frame and means or closing the ends of said casings. I

3. A package freight carrier, comprising a rigid rectangular frame structure having a plurality of horizontally arranged and parallelly spaced supporting bars rectan lar sheet metal casings supported by said era, and means for closing the ends of said cas- 4. rigid rectangular frame structure having a plurality of horizontally arranged and parallelly spaced supporting bars, rectangular sheet metal casings formed of longitudinally corrugated sheet metal supported by said A package freight carrier, comprising a bars, and means for closing the ends of said casings. y

5. A package freight carrier, comprising a container formed with a rigid metal frame structure having a plurality of parallelly arranged horizontal supporting bars, an insulating. casing closing'the top and ends of said frame, sheet metal casingssupport'ed in said frame and spaced apart by said supporting bars with spacing extending comp etely therearound, and insulated means for closing the ends of said casings, the spaces around said casings permitting a circulation of air around the latter.

6. A package freight carrier, comprisin an outer casing, a rigid frame-work arrange within said outer casing, a plurality of parallelly s aced casings extending transversely of sai outer casing and open at the ends, doors hinged on to said frame-work and closing the ends of said parallelly arranged casings, and vertical struts arranged between the horizontal supports .for said casing.

7. A package freight carrier, comprising an outer insulating s ell open at the sides, a frame-work of horizontal and vertical bars forming a plurality of rows of rectangular openings in the sides of said container, sheet a container having its interior subdivided into a plurality of individual compartments each of said compartments being open at each end and adapted to hold individual packages of freight, and means for individually closing the open outer ends of said compartments.

10; A package freight carrier, comprising a container having its interior subdivided into a plurality of individual compartments permanently spaced apart and each having open outer ends, and individual closure members closing the open outer end of each of said compartments.

11. A package freight carrier, comprising a rigid frame structure, a plurality of casings parallelly arranged and extending transversely of said frame and having open ends, said casing being permanently secured to said frame in spaced relation the one to the other to permit a circulation of air therearound, and means for closing the outer ends of said casings.

WILLIAM PLATTS KELLETT. 

